Dozens of public and private colleges
have taken steps to ensure their students are exposed to a range
of intellectual views on campus, and to ensure that students can
freely express their views, says a report being released Thursday. "If
you want to produce informed citizens, you have to hear both sides" of
an argument, says Anne Neal, president of the Washington-based
non-profit American Council of Trustees and Alumni. ACTA plans
to mail its report, based on a review of more than 200 schools,
to more than 9,000 trustees as part of a campaign to "reinvigorate
the free exchange of ideas" on campuses, she says...
...University of Minnesota. What would
be cut: $50 million, reducing the 2010-11 appropriation by 7.4
percent to $627.3 million. When the cut would begin: July 2010. Potential
impact: The U had planned for a $73 million cut, which would have
meant $20 million in internal cuts in 2010-11, cutbacks in spending
on new investments and a tuition increase of 7.5 percent (reduced
with federal stimulus money to 4.5 percent). It is unclear how
those cuts will be affected, given the $50 million figure...
The U.S. attorney's
office wants to know if former Gov. Rod Blagojevich or his power
brokers sought a leg-up for applicants to the University of Illinois
and at least two other state universities. Campus spokespeople
confirmed today that the University of Illinois, Southern Illinois
University and Northern Illinois University have received subpoenas...
The increasing push by federal and
state governments alike to tie financial support for colleges to
their success in retaining and graduating students concerns officials
at institutions with large numbers of students who are from low-income
backgrounds or are the first in their families to go to college.
It's not that they mind being held accountable, say officials at
open-access four-year public universities, community colleges,
and for-profit institutions; they just don't want to be punished
for admitting and trying to educate those who have historically
had the least access to higher education and who enter college
with the most risk factors that tend to drag students down...
